At present, the U.S. is making great concrete efforts to establish a boutique PKK/PYD state in northern Syria. According to what has been said, it intends to unite this state with the Kurdish region in northern Iraq, to reach the Mediterranean, and to set up an oil transport route there. While Iran has become the main enemy again, it has also taken control of the Saudi-led Gulf bloc. In short, the U.S. has a project, albeit complex and variable.
Meanwhile, Israel is in pursuit of the promised land. The borders of this land are also a matter of debate. However, everyone agrees that Israel has a large land acquisition project that crosses the current borders of Israel and that includes other countries' lands.
Russia took the opportunity of the U.S.’s confusion and incoherence and has reached the Mediterranean, which it had been dreaming of for years. It has settled in Syria, set up bases and rescued and took the helm of the Assad regime. It is now continuing to expand its area of influence and striving to have a permanent presence in the Mediterranean. In short, it has this idea and vision regarding the Middle East.
Do Islamic countries and Muslims living in the region have a project targeting these countries that have come from thousands of kilometers away and realized their projects and dreams in the lands we live in? Have you read of a great project, vision and idea that will affect the fate of the Middle East, Muslim states and peoples?
I think the concept of the alliance of the Islamic world, namely the unity of the ummah as we Muslims call it, is the most global idea at present. However, no one presents and supports it as a concreate and viable project.
Those who see the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) as a part of this idea are wrong. That organization has just stood like an institution founded to be a place of distraction against unity.
As a result, Muslims do not have a Middle East vision. Moreover, they have bad intentions that will ruin other Muslim countries and people. What Iran has done in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon and what Saudi Arabia has done in Yemen and Qatar is the latest example.
Gaddafi made a speech to all leaders at the 2008 Arab League meeting. Everyone is sharing this speech on the Internet nowadays. A very dramatic and realistic speech:
"We all waited in our corner while Saddam was hung. Saddam was a friend of the U.S., but they hung him. Now, which of us U.S friends will be hung next?
We are each other’s enemies. I'm sorry to say that. We hate each other, we fool each other. We are secretly delighted with each other’s troubles, and we are trying to trap each other. Our intelligence is undermining each other instead of our enemies."
Three years after making this speech, Gaddafi was toppled by France and the U.S. and was beaten to death. I think his fate will befall many Muslim leaders as well.
The Islamic world has blatantly turned into the guinea pig of the projects and bad plans of others. Obama strengthened Iran and used it against Sunnis and Saudi Arabia. Now Trump is strengthening Saudi Arabia and using it against Iran.
While Turkey was friendly with Saudi Arabia, it pressured Syria and Iran. Now it is joining Iran and pressuring Barzani. While Iran was allies with the PKK, Russia, China and the U.S. and battering Turkey, now it is trying to form an alliance with Turkey and withstand U.S. pressure.
All this is done as an anti-thesis, in response to the projects and theses that other states have planned for our territory. In short, we do not have a plan.
Unfortunately, we do not have a future vision of our own and a big project to relieve the pain and conflicts in this region. Do we have a common dream that will end foreign countries' bad dreams in this land, unite all of us with one goal and bring peace? We're just being dispersed.
Turkey is one of the few countries that will lead such an idea. But there is no voice rising here either. I do not know whether our state has a Middle East vision. Sadly enough, nothing is being discussed apart from Bahçeli’s valorous statement showing Kirkuk and Mosul as 82nd and 83rd provinces and his absurd idea of sending 5,000 idealist nationalists to Kirkuk.
Like the states and governments that do not have a Middle East vision, Muslim intellectuals have no idea or effort in this regard. Unfortunately, there are no intellectuals, scholars, scientists or religious men who escape the captivity of sects, ethnic identities and spirits and produce ideas for the future of the Muslims.
But this fate will change one day. I am sure it’s not going to continue like this. But I am not sure whether we will live to see it.
